Air Force plane crashes, all on board survive

By Tim Shaffer

DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Delaware (Reuters) – An Air Force C-5
Galaxy cargo plane crashed and broke apart short of the runway
at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Monday but all 17 people
on board survived, the Air Force said.

There was no precise information about injuries but many of
those on the plane were taken to hospital, Air Force spokesman
Capt. John Sheets said. There were 14 crew members and three
civilian contractors on board, he said.

The plane took off from Dover and was due to fly to U.S.
Naval Station Rota in Spain before heading to Kuwait. It
encountered trouble once in the air and returned to the base,
crashing as it tried to land.

“After taking off there was some type of in-flight
emergency, and when it returned to the base it landed short of
the runway,” said Sheets, a spokesman at Scott Air Force Base,
which is affiliated with the Dover base.

The plane lay on a field few hundred yards (metres) from
the runway, with the cockpit broken away and a wing damaged.
The tail section was about 200 yards from the rest of the
plane, near a building. Rescue workers sprayed the plane with
protective foam and there was an odor of jet fuel in the air,
but no sign of fire was evident.

The weather at the base was reported as partly cloudy with
winds of 7 mph.

The C-5, made by Lockheed Martin, is the biggest plane in
the Air Force and one of the largest in the world.

It is used for large shipments of cargo around the globe,
with a capacity to carry loads such as two M1 battle tanks or
six Apache helicopters with their engines removed, and normally
flies with a crew of seven.

The plane has four engines, made by General Electric.

The Dover base has the U.S. military’s largest and busiest
air-freight terminal and the service flies missions to more
than 100 countries, according to the base Web site.